What is an international event that is going on right now, and how it will affect the United States?

One of the major international events that is going on right now is the unrest in the Middle East. There are two main “hot spots” for this unrest today. Those spots are Egypt and Syria. In Egypt, the military has removed the democratically elected president and is cracking down hard on the president’s Islamist allies. In Syria, there is a civil war in which the government has apparently used chemical weapons against the rebels. The problems in Syria are on the “front burner” to a greater degree than those in Egypt at the moment since the US government is trying to persuade the UN to take some sort of action against Syria.

It is not clear how much these events will directly affect the US. Neither of them poses a direct threat to our country. However, they could both work to change the overall political environment in the Middle East. For example, if hardline Islamists take power over all or part of Syria, they could provide a haven for militant groups like Al-Qaeda. If the Egyptian military continues to suppress Islamist parties and the US continues to support Egypt, it might cause Islamists to become even more anti-American than they already are. It might also make our push for more democracy seem hypocritical since we would be supporting a regime that removed a democratically elected ruler.

Thus, these events might have at least indirect repercussions for the United States.